At that the fairy clapped her tiny hands. “That
is a fine wish!” she cried. “It will
come true, and stay so. But the others——­”
and she shook her head sorrowfully. Then she
waved her magic wand three times in the air, and suddenly,
in less than two jumps, if the ring with the blue
stone, that Susie had lost, didn’t appear right
on the end of the wand. And it flew off and landed
right on Susie’s paw. Oh, wasn’t she
glad! And the fairy said: “The ring
will last, because that is blue, and I am blue, too.
Now, good bye, Susie.” And with that she
disappeared, changing into a butterfly with golden
wings. Then Susie started to get in the golden
coach and ride home, but, would you believe me, if
those horses didn’t run away, upsetting the
coach and breaking it, and scattering all the ten
boxes of chocolate-covered carrots all over. Oh,
how badly Susie felt, but it was just what the fairy
said would happen. The first two wishes didn’t
last. Anyhow, Susie had the ring, and she hurried
home to tell her story. Now, if it doesn’t
rain to-morrow, the story to-morrow night will be
about Sammie and the green fairy.

XXVII

SAMMIE AND THE GREEN FAIRY

When Susie told her brother Sammie about what happened
to her in the woods, when she saw the blue fairy,
the little rabbit boy remarked:

“Aw, I guess you fell asleep and dreamed that,
Susie.” for that’s the way with brothers
sometimes. I once had a brother, and he—­but
there, I’ll tell you about him some other time.

“No,” answered Susie, “I didn’t
dream it. Why, here’s my ring to prove
it,” and she held out the one with the blue stone
in it.

“I guess you found that in the woods, where
you lost it,” went on Sammie. “I
don’t believe in fairies at all.”

“But didn’t one cure Uncle Wiggily’s
rheumatism?”

“Aw, well, I guess that would have gotten better
anyhow.”

“It wouldn’t, so there!” exclaimed
Susie. “I just hope you see a fairy some
day, and I hope they don’t treat you as kind
as the one treated me, even if the horses did run
away and disappear.” But of course Susie
didn’t really want anything bad to happen to
her brother. But you just wait and see what did
happen. Oh, it was something very, very strange,
yes, indeed, and I’m not fooling a bit; no, indeed.
I wouldn’t make it out anything different than
what it really was, not for a penny and a half.

Well, it happened about a week later. Sammie
was coming home from a ball game, which he had played
with Johnnie and Billie Bushytail (of whom I will
tell you later), and some others of his chums, and
he was in a deep, dark part of the wood, when suddenly
he heard a crashing in the bushes.

“Pooh!” exclaimed Sammie. “I
s’pose that’s one of them fairies.
I’m not going to notice her,” and with
that he tossed his baseball up in the air, careless
like, to show that he didn’t mind. But he
was a bit nervous, all the same, and his hand slipped
and his best ball went right down in a deep, dark,
muddy puddle of water. Then Sammie felt pretty
bad, I tell you, and he was going to get a stick to
fish the ball out, when he heard the crashing in the
bushes again, and what should appear but—­no,
not a fairy, but bad, ugly fox.